But there will be a Mars Attack tie-in for about every other licensed and creator-owned title that IDW publishes, slated for January 2013!

Here’s the shortlist, in order:

Popeye

Miss Fury (J. Bone)

Opus (by Berkeley Breathed!)

KISS

Judge Dredd

The Starslammers (Walter Simonson!)

The Real Ghostbusters

Madman

Chew (wait… isn’t that an Image title?)

Transformers

Strangers in Paradise (!)

Spike

Zombies vs. Robots (BRAINS!)

ROG-2000 (John Byrne!)

Cerebus (No. Really. By Dave Sim)

Are you ready to meet your Martian overlords?

Here’s the PR, just so you know I’m not making this up.

This January, MARS ATTACKS IDW!

Bloodthirsty Martians Take On All-Star IDW Properties in an Extinction-Level Event!

San Diego, CA (October 17, 2012) – IDW Publishing regrets to inform you that this January, many of your most beloved characters are coming under attack. Vicious, bloodthirsty Martians have descended from the skies and crossed through infinite panels and dimensions seeking total comic book conquest! Batten down the hatches and assemble your militia, because 2013 is kicking off with MARS ATTACKS IDW!

Beginning in the first week of January, Topps’ terrifying Martian conquerors are infiltrating many of IDW’s prized titles in five weekly one-shots. It’s going to take guts, smarts, and the brute force of an unprecedented army of talented comics creators to fight them off!

“It seems natural for the Mars Attacks Martians to go on the offensive—attacking is right there in their title—and now we see that they’re just too out of control to keep their warlike ways confined to their own series,” said Chris Ryall, IDW’s Chief Creative Officer/Editor-in-Chief and strategic planner of this five-pronged invasion. “And as exciting as the weekly attack is going to be, I’m equally enthused about the insane cover variations going on with each issue. Read on and be amazed by the talent assembled to offer visual clues of what we’d be in for had the Martians attacked more than just five top IDW titles.”

Invasion alarms start sounding January 2, when MARS ATTACKS POPEYE. Martin Powell, Terry Beatty, and Tom Ziuko will team up to chronicle the Martians pulling into a port of pain to take on the spinach-enhanced sailorman. Fans can be certain it’ll be all hands on deck with a high wave advisory with the MARS ATTACKS POPEYE cover by Ray Dillon—all of Dillon’s covers will mimic the look of worn out trading cards, complete with back-cover text just like an old Mars Attacks card set—and retailer incentive covers of MARS ATTACKS MISS FURY by J. Bone and MARS ATTACKS OPUS by Berkeley Breathed!

January 9, the battlefront expands across time and space to the same 1970s New York City when MARS ATTACKS KISS, a twisted retelling of the very first Kiss comic book! Will the Martians’ hunger for otherworldly destruction be a match for the sheer force of rock n’ roll? Only Chris Ryall, Alan Robinson, and Tom Ziuko will have the answer! Featuring a cover by Ray Dillon and incentive covers of MARS ATTACKS JUDGE DREDD by Greg Staples and MARS ATTACKS THE STARSLAMMERS by Walter Simonson! The mighty leaders of the KISS Army are calling in the cavalry, and something tells us it’s not Doctor Love!

January 16, the Martian menace takes the fight to the world’s pre-eminent poltergeist punishers when MARS ATTACKS THE REAL GHOSTBUSTERS! When Martians invade, Erik Burnham and Jose Holder know just who they’re gonna call! Everyone knows Venkman, Stantz, Spengler, and Zeddemore ain’t afraid of no ghosts, but what about aliens? With a cover by Ray Dillon and incentive covers of MARS ATTACKS MADMAN by Michael and Laura Allred and MARS ATTACKS CHEW by Rob Guillory, the streams of comic book awesomeness are sure to be crossed!

January 23, the drums of war begin beating double-time when the Martian armada clashes with Cybertron’s finest when MARS ATTACKS THE TRANSFORMERS! Daring to take on Optimus Prime’s fearsome army, this epic battle of Martian versus machine will be chronicled by Shane McCarthy and Matt Frank with a cover by Ray Dillon! If that daring incursion wasn’t enough, this one-shot will also feature incentive covers of MARS ATTACKS STRANGERS IN PARADISE by Terry Moore and everyone’s favorite vampire antihero sharpening his teeth for MARS ATTACKS SPIKE by Franco Urru! That’s right, Angel fans, you get one last look at IDW’s version of Spike, thereby proving all the rules are meant to be broken in this insane weekly event!

January 30, just when the brawl for it all seems like it can’t get any bigger, MARS ATTACKS ZOMBIES VS. ROBOTS! Chris Ryall, Andy Kuhn, and John Rauch will be there to chronicle the titanic terror when the three battle-hardened armies collide! As the final blows for galactic supremacy are struck, they’ll be accompanied by a cover from Ray Dillon and incentive covers of MARS ATTACKS ROG-2000 by John Byrne and MARS ATTACKS CEREBUS, by Dave Sim!

This January, everything is on the line and fans of all callings are encouraged to sign up and do their part. The Green Menace from the Red Planet is attacking from all angles and no theater of war will go untread upon as MARS ATTACKS IDW!

Will you welcome our new Martian overlords, or will you take up arms with comics’ greatest heroes and give them the boot? Decide quickly– saucers are en route!

I’ve been writing for The Beat since July of 2010.
I’ve been reading comics since 1974, collecting since 1984, and spreading the graphic novel gospel since 1994.
I’m a bookseller, a librarian, an amateur scholar, a cool uncle, and a comics evangelist.
Ask me anything!

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Comments

Well good to know that we learned a bunch of important lessons from the comics market of 1994, like don’t build your publishing line around stunts and events, don’t saturate the market with variant covers, and don’t… publish a ton of Mars Attacks comics.

So basically Spike has nothing to do with the book, he’s just on an alternate cover for Mars Attacks vs. Transformers? That’s pretty lame. Why put someone on a cover of a book if they’re not eve IN the book?

I’m glad that the extra covers feature the same story as the regular ones, even though Mars attacks Chew would be sweet. Reason being the fact that the extra covers are Retailer Incentive covers and are going to be hard to come by.